Educational Technology

BY MATTHEW LYNCH, Edvocate

To say that teachers are busy would be an understatement! Besides the act of teaching, you spend hours every day and on the weekend on lesson planning and grading. But it’s also important for teachers to keep learning, and the best way to do that is from other teachers. Thanks to modern technology, it’s now easy to connect with inspirational teachers and to learn from them. We’ve curated this list of educational Twitter feeds to help you stay up-to-date on new technology, burgeoning trends, and or even just a daily dose of motivation.

http://www.theedadvocate.org/the-edvocates-list-of-20-must-follow-k-12-teacher-twitter-feeds/

BY MATTHEW LYNCH, the Tech Edvocate

With some of the biggest names in technology focusing their creative and financial assets on education, edtech will be at the forefront of education reform over the next decade. Bill Gates is investing billions and Mark Zuckerberg 100’s of millions, into the future of learning. We expect Edtech to transform the way we teach and learn. Standardized testing and core standards are not going away, so many educators are turning to edtech to help them negotiate the demands of this exacting system. There is a growing relationship between these core standards and the personalized learning initiatives being funded by Gates and Zuckerberg. With these big investors at the table, educators are hopeful that the influx of edtech will move well beyond achieving benchmarks on standardized tests.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/why-the-next-10-years-of-edtech-will-crush-the-last-10/

By Ellie Ashford, Community College Daily

It’s hard to gauge the extent to which OER are used, as data is not tracked nationally, says Una Daly, director of the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources​. OpenStax, a nonprofit based at Rice University, estimates the OER materials it provides led to savings of $42 million in textbook costs in 2015-16. As the nation’s largest OER provider, OpenStax has created open textbooks for about 25 popular general education courses, allowing students and colleges to order relatively inexpensive printed copies for about $25 to $60 from Amazon or college bookstores. Because there is so much good OER material available, Daly says, faculty are now more likely to adapt OER to their needs – by customizing them or eliminating unnecessary chapters – than to create their own OER from scratch.

http://www.ccdaily.com/Pages/Academic-Programs/More-colleges-adopt-OER-degrees.aspx

By Richard Chang, Campus Technology

Google is releasing two new Chromebooks for the education market that aim to be more versatile and practical for the everyday student. The new Chromebooks are scheduled to arrive in late spring, in time for back-to-school planning. Google did not offer a specific price, but the devices are designed to be affordable for the student market. Finally, Google has made updates to its popular Google Classroom learning management system, so that all new Chromebooks can take advantage of new features, such as differentiated instruction, specific management of student work, notifications and analytics.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/01/24/google-rolls-out-new-chromebooks-allows-access-to-android-adobe-apps.aspx

By JOHN KLINE, Goshen News

School Board members took a major step toward the planned establishment of a new online academy for the school corporation during their meeting Monday evening. During the meeting, the board approved a request by Angela Piazza, assistant superintendent of secondary education for the corporation, to enter into a three-year, $44,400 contract with the Edmentum company to begin the process of establishing the corporation’s new Goshen Online Academy. The board has been considering establishment of such an online academy since early September 2016 when Piazza first brought the proposal up for discussion. “We haven’t yet designed what our program alternative would look like, but we would like approval to go ahead and purchase the curriculum so we can get training and start thinking about how we might utilize it,” Piazza said in making the request Monday. With the Edmentum curriculum, the class range would begin at fourth grade and continue through 12th grade, though the corporation’s main focus would be through 10th grade.

http://www.goshennews.com/news/local_news/goshen-community-schools-green-lights-new-online-academy/article_0bb04439-b80c-5ecb-9acd-bdae803bf610.html

by Lizzy Partsch, Hawkeye

Today’s technology is rapidly growing and expanding. From iPhones to iWatchs to smart TVs, there is no doubt you can’t say technology has drastically changed in the last couple years. In fact, even former US president Bill Clinton states, “When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the World Wide Web… Now even my cat has its own page,” showing how popular the internet and social networking has become over the last couple years. One of the most popular and important forms of technology is the expansion of online courses and classes offered in college and even in high school. Thousands of high school students will soon graduate, having the option to go to college or take online classes. But are students prepared for the technology and skills it takes to complete online college courses.

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

The American automaker behind Chrysler and Fiat cars is investing bigtime in Michigan middle grade and high school students. The charitable arm of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US LLC has awarded $226,000 in grants to 57 robotics teams and programs to help students in those schools cover some of the costs of participating in robotics competitions. The grants range in size from $400 to $4,725 and are intended to cover expenses such as registration fees, parts and materials as well as team apparel associated with the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge programs. Both are run by the organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire young people in science and technology.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/01/11/carmaker-backs-middle-ad-high-school-robotics.aspx

BY BETH BRUBAKER, eSchool News

Throughout my 35 years of teaching, I’ve watched students grow up in what I lovingly call the “worksheet generation.” In this environment, students are accustomed to a very structured style of learning, where they are handed a worksheet, then asked to turn to page five in their math book and solve problems one through 15. This approach, however, often teaches students there is only one right answer and limits meaningful engagement and creativity.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/01/20/robotics-teach-problem-solving/

BY LAURA ASCIONE, eSchool News

Mixed reality combines virtual and augmented realities for enhanced learning experiences–and institutions are already implementing it. A new collaboration between Pearson and Microsoft is using a self-contained holographic computer to develop “mixed reality” learning experiences for students. The collaboration will explore how mixed reality can help solve real challenges in areas of learning, ranging from online tutoring and coaching, nursing education, and engineering to construction and surveyor training. Microsoft says its HoloLens is the world’s first self-contained holographic computer. Pearson is developing and piloting mixed reality content at colleges, universities and secondary schools in the United States and around the world.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/01/23/institutions-mixed-reality/

by By David Nagel, THE Journal

The results are in for our second-annual survey of IT pros working in K–12 schools and districts. For the most part, tech leaders are doing well in their professions and see a bright future for the industry. Salaries are up, and so is the level of optimism for the future among IT pros in K–12 education. According to THE Journal’s second-annual IT Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey, the overall average salary for IT leaders and workers grew about $2,000 year over year. The vast majority also told us they see nothing but healthy or even unbridled growth in the future for IT in academia.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/01/23/2017-it-salary-job-satisfaction-survey.aspx

By Mary Grush, Campus Technology

Over the course of the whole semester, students work on projects of their own design and proposal. The art of asking questions is just as important as the act of answering them. Ongoing critiques throughout the semester support this aspect of the pedagogy. In a sense, the critiques serve as guided, reflective compositions that are very rigorous. The students, their teachers, and their peers all try to contribute through respectful and rigorous discourse, and document progress. This becomes highly personalized learning for each student, and it’s done in a supportive, social environment. They wanted to look at authentic student work, have real evidence of learning, and be able to do this comprehensively. As a result, many institutions focused their ePortfolio efforts on institutional applications.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/01/23/education-values-in-product-design.aspx

by Rimma Kats, eMarketer Daily

It’s no surprise that millennials’ social media time is mainly spent on smartphones. But what about older folks—are Baby Boomers and older users mostly mobile when it comes to social? Turns out, the answer is yes, if not quite to the same extent. According to Q3 2016 data from Nielsen, even those age 50 and up spend the vast majority of their social media time on mobile devices. Three-quarters of the older users spent most of their social media time on mobile—that includes smartphone and tablet. Not surprisingly, the level was even higher among Millennials. Fully 90% of their social media time occurred on smartphones and tablets.

https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Its-Not-Just-Millennials-That-Tap-Mobile-Social/1015091

By Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed

The U.S. Department of Education places ed tech front and center in the effort to meet the nation’s postsecondary attainment goals. It will be a shame if the National Higher Education Technology Plan, released by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology just eight days before the presidential inauguration, fails to receive the attention it deserves. For it offers a vision of the role of technology in higher education that seeks to radically reshape the discourse by focusing attention less on the use of ed tech in individual classrooms and much more on the ways it can contribute to the development of “a student-centered higher education ecosystem.”

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/national-educational-technology-call-action

by DONALD HALL, Hechinger Report

We are living in an era of stun­ningly unreliable narration. “Fake news” sites fuel one unsubstantiated conspiracy theory after another, and vigilantes take up arms to redress imaginary crimes. Provocateurs from abroad and opportunists at home seem eager to sow political chaos, through manipulating fictions presented as facts. Despotism and/or social mayhem are the likely outcome of a lie-based storytelling envi­ronment. See Germany in the 1930s or Rwanda in the 1990s for historical proof of that. About the latter, especially, I know all too much. I taught in Rwanda, at its national university, in the mid-1980s and left the coun­try just as the economic situation began to spiral out of control. We are at an especially dangerous point in America today. We, too, are divided along racial, ethnic and economic lines, into camps of globalists and isolationists. Today, however, our “facts” and “fictions” are delivered at a historically unprecedented speed and quantity, through online media and through social networks.

http://hechingerreport.org/fake-news-students-learn-read-lies/

BY MATTHEW LYNCH, Tech Edvocate

One might say that kids intuitively acquire knowledge about information technology and its usage. They start touching keyboards and screens at a young age, and quickly learn how to navigate the Internet. But what about coding? Should our kids also learn how to code? Fundamentally understanding these new technologies—how they operate and how to customize them for better functionality—would improve kids’ experience with today’s digital devices. Introductory programming classes in schools can help children understand the basics of programming structure, logic, and design. Of course, not all children will become software engineers; however, learning programming may help sharpen their practical and logical thinking skills. What’s more, some people found coding helped them get more out of their computers, tablets, smartphones, and other popular digital devices.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/why-coding-should-be-a-compulsory-subject-for-students/

by Sol Bermann, EDUCAUSE Review

In the digital age, we all too often focus on data privacy and its legal and compliance requirements. In doing so we forget the dictionary definition of privacy (which includes “being apart from…observation”), and risk losing track of how pervasive and quickly data collection, big data, and data science are creating autonomy-privacy issues that can impact free expression or dissenting views as much as pervasive security cameras or wiretaps.

http://er.educause.edu/blogs/2017/1/free-to-be-you-and-me-autonomy-privacy-in-higher-education

BY MATTHEW LYNCH, Tech Edvocate

Just as students have to learn how to be good citizens within their community, they need to know how to behave and be a positive part of the digital community. Digital citizenship is an important responsibility that everyone needs to understand as it encapsulates as many aspects of behavior and actions as physical interaction does. Depending on the age of the student, there are different areas that you can focus on. As the student’s age, you have to ensure that their understanding and ability to be a good digital citizen continues. Starting with stranger danger and cyberbullying, your students will need to continue to learn about this aspect of technology throughout their educational career.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/5-ways-to-teach-digital-citizenship-to-your-students/

By Syd Hayman, Arkansas Online

When Badger Academy was first getting its start, it was graduating one, maybe two, students per year. Now the Beebe Public Schools alternative-learning program is on track to graduate 12 seniors, and its director is proud of every single one of them. “The parents trust me, and the kids trust me,” said Keith Madden, director of alternative learning for the Beebe Public Schools. Madden has been over Badger Academy for the past seven years. Badger Academy is for seventh- through 12th-graders who are behind in school, were considering dropping out or who need extra help. Some students may get behind because of moving around a lot, mental-health issues or other circumstances relating to their home life, Madden said.

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2017/jan/22/director-committed-learning/?f=threerivers

by Jarrett Carter, Education Dive

A new survey from Pearson Education reveals that 80% of a surveyed group of students and faculty say that digital learning materials are part of the future of higher education, and would help with challenges in learning and affordability. Only 56% of survey respondents say their schools have at least half of the course materials available in digital format, despite the costs of traditional textbooks having risen more than 1,000% in the last 40 years. Some vendors say digital materials are helpful not only in increasing affordability for students, but also in collecting student data on learning styles and trends.

http://www.educationdive.com/news/survey-demand-for-digital-course-materials-reaches-record-high/434314/

By TENNESSEE WATSON, Wyoming Public Radio

Wyoming Senate File 35 – the Virtual Education Bill – would help improve virtual learning in Wyoming schools, especially in rural areas where hiring teachers in specialized fields can be hard. Districts across the state are already experimenting with online courses, but the Department of Education wants to bring this opportunity to all students. In Rock Springs, Black Butte High School has been blazing ahead. Sharon Seaton teaches up to 10 different science classes simultaneously. That means from advanced math, to mixing paint for a diorama, to troubleshooting computer problems, she’s constantly fielding questions.

http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/students-and-teachers-need-support-embrace-technology

By MATTHEW LYNCH, Tech Edvocate

Makerspace is a relatively new method of teaching students in a space where they can get hands-on experience working with concepts they recently learned. The point of the space is to make, create, and invent new things. There are many advantages to giving students a place to apply concepts, and those benefits are true for all areas and fields of study. If you have been thinking about creating a maker space in your classroom, here are a few things to consider to help you understand why you should go ahead and do it.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/10-reasons-to-create-makerspaces-in-your-school/